Two years ago, C.H. Robinson was facing one of the toughest freight markets in decades. As volumes fell and margins tightened, the company needed more than efficiency. It needed a transformation. When Dave Bozeman became CEO in 2023, he made it clear that sustainable performance would come from faster problem-solving, rigorous measurement and sharper execution.
That mindset became the foundation for Lean AI: a disciplined framework for AI innovation that’s delivering measurable results for customers and investors alike. In just two years, the company has reported seven straight quarters of outperformance, expanding productivity and margins despite the soft market.
Investors have taken notice. Deutsche Bank called the company “an undervalued AI play,” noting that few others in any industry are delivering such tangible AI benefits at scale. Wells Fargo described it as “a clear example of constructive AI implementation,” while J.P. Morgan highlighted how the company is “becoming the disruptor” through generative and agentic AI innovation.
What is Lean AI?
Those results don’t happen by chance. They’re the outcome of Lean AI’s unique formula. Lean AI combines the principles of Lean methodology in the Robinson Operating Model with the expertise of its logisticians and leading AI technology to maximize value and minimize waste for smarter, faster, and better supply chains. It is continuously evaluated and refined to deliver increasingly impactful results for its customers, carriers, and employees.
Lean methodology has long guided organizations in eliminating inefficiencies and optimizing workflows. At C.H. Robinson, those same principles now shape how AI supply chain solutions are developed and deployed to enhance the customer experience.
Adapting Lean methodology to logistics and AI
So what does this look like in practice? At C.H. Robinson, Lean AI begins where the work happens. Using Gemba—a Lean practice that involves observing work at its source—teams identify inefficiencies and uncover opportunities for continuous improvement that create real customer value. Each AI initiative is built to solve genuine customer pain points, not theoretical ones.
One such opportunity emerged in the company’s quoting process, where employees manually reviewed thousands of emailed quote requests each day. This time-consuming task previously could not be automated, which came at a cost: As C.H. Robinson research with MIT shows, shippers delayed in getting to the spot market can end up paying 23% to 35% more for the same shipment.
Armed with those insights, the company applied AI technology to identify quote-related emails and connect them to automated pricing systems, cutting response time to just 32 seconds. Customers now get faster, more competitive pricing, while employees are freed to focus on higher-value work like customer engagement and solution design. Through a continuous human feedback loop, employees review outcomes and fine-tune the system, ensuring that automation remains both precise and adaptable to customer needs.
This disciplined process—start with a real problem, test solutions, integrate human oversight, and measure results—has become a blueprint for how C.H. Robinson applies Lean AI across the enterprise.
Driving value and real-world impact
Every Lean AI initiative starts with the same question: What creates real value for the customers we serve? That mindset anchors C.H. Robinson innovation strategy and reflects the foundation of Lean thinking itself.
By building solutions around real operational needs, the company has reshaped how tasks get done. Its fleet of over 30 AI agents now handles repetitive, time-intensive tasks so employees can focus on higher-impact work.
The results speak for themselves:
- 40%+ productivity gain over two years, measured by shipments per person per day
- 3M+ shipping tasks performed by agentic AI
- 5,500 truckload orders per day handled by the company’s orders agent
- 75% of less-than-truckload orders fully automated, up from 50%
- 600 hours per day saved by the orders agent
- 43,000 locations where the appointments agent sets pickups and deliveries
- Customers feel the impact in faster speed-to-market, more reliable service, and continuously optimized supply chains.
An AI advantage built from the inside out
C.H. Robinson approach to AI sets it apart in a landscape crowded with off-the-shelf tools and flashy solutions that lack the depth needed to drive real results. Because the company builds most of its AI technology in-house—guided by deep domain expertise and one of the largest datasets in logistics—it can move faster, refine solutions in real time, and scale innovations across its global network.
That ability to learn and execute at speed is what keeps C.H. Robinson ahead: every improvement compounds, every automation gets smarter, and every outcome delivers greater value for customers and carriers worldwide.
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